The Fishing Spot In Higashishimo Town

Elena and I went to the sea with Muto. He had offered to show us an excellent fishing spot, so we had tagged along. On the northern side of Higashikami Town, there was a sandy beach that served as a swimming beach during the summer.

Apparently, the fishing spot was among the rocks east of that beach. We headed east along the sandy shore, which looked suitable for digging clams, until we reached a rocky stretch of coastline.

“Muto-san, what are we using for bait?”

“Shrimp. There are tons of little shrimp along the coast around here.”

Muto had brought two small nets with slightly longer handles. They were called landing nets. One of them had a particularly fine mesh, and apparently, he used it to catch shrimp.

I borrowed that net and lowered it into the sea where seaweed was growing. After rummaging around in the seaweed and pulling the net back up, I found it filled with tiny shrimp.

We placed the shrimp we caught into a small cooler containing a little seawater. After about thirty minutes, we had collected a large quantity of shrimp and began fishing with them as bait.

Back on the island, I had used sea slaters as bait, but shrimp seemed more promising. Since Elena said she had never fished before, I prepared her entire rig, including the bait. I also taught her how to handle the fishing rod and lure.

“What kind of fish can we catch here?”

Elena asked Muto.

“Let’s see. At this time of year, probably greenlings, horse mackerel, black sea bream, and sea bass.”

Surprisingly, Elena was the first to get a bite. Judging by how much her rod was bending, it seemed to be a big one.

“Reel it in! Keep reeling!”

I called out instructions to Elena. Her Individual Level had risen, making her much stronger than before. Letting out excited cries, she somehow managed to land the fish entirely on her own. It was a magnificent sea bass measuring about seventy centimeters.

“That’s amazing!”

“If fishing is this easy, why don’t more people come here?”

Muto laughed. He explained that the fish weren’t always biting. Apparently, depending on the weather, wind, and tidal currents, there were days when you couldn’t catch anything at all.

If three such days passed in a row, you would run out of food, making it difficult to survive on fishing alone.

Muto was the next to get a bite. He caught a greenling.

Our catch that day was excellent. However, all I managed to catch were horse mackerel. I caught twenty-four of them, earning the title of Horse Mackerel Master from Muto. I wasn’t particularly pleased. If anything, I would have preferred to be called the Black Sea Bream Master.

Muto caught several greenlings and black sea bream, while Elena landed two sea bass and one black sea bream.

“Shall we head back?”

Muto suggested this around noon. He was probably hungry and eager to eat some fish.

Elena agreed, so we packed up and started back toward the nursery school. We parted ways with Muto along the way and passed the house of Yoshino, who regularly shared his vegetables with us.

I spotted Yoshino sharpening a sickle in his yard. Apparently, Yoshino lived alone with his grandson. About ten years earlier, he had lost his wife, son, and daughter-in-law in a car accident and had been raising his grandson by himself ever since.

His grandson, Seiya, was in his first year of junior high school.

“Yoshino-san, thank you for always giving us such delicious vegetables. We caught some fish at the sea today, so I’ll clean some and bring them over later.”

Yoshino broke into a smile. He had a warm, friendly smile.

“That sounds wonderful. It’s been ages since I’ve had fish.”

Apparently, the farmers were having a difficult time now that they could no longer use machinery. They didn’t even seem to have time to go fishing themselves.

Elena and I continued walking toward the nursery school. Remembering how happy Yoshino had looked, I spoke to Elena.

“Muto-san should just go back to being a fisherman instead of working as an Explorer.”

“When the town first ended up like this, he took the fishing gear he had at home, caught fish, and supplied them to the townspeople. But apparently, he eventually ran out of fishing hooks and couldn’t fish anymore.”

Fishing hooks were consumable supplies. Fish such as sea bass could bite through fishing rigs and escape, so his supply of hooks and other tackle had apparently dwindled rapidly.

Between the days when he couldn’t catch anything and the shortage of fishing hooks, Muto seemed to have given up on fishing for a living. He had apparently said things might have been different if he had enough fuel to take his boat out to sea, but there was nothing he could do about that.

Hearing that running out of fishing hooks was one of the reasons Muto had quit fishing, I wondered whether he possessed Heartstone Processing Technique. I figured that skill should allow him to make fishing hooks. I would have to ask him about it sometime.

When we arrived at the nursery school and showed the children our fish, they were delighted.

“Hey, hey! What about tuna?”

Takuro, a fifth-grade elementary school student, asked me.

I gave him a wry smile and told him we hadn’t caught any. Apparently, Takuro loved tuna. He certainly had expensive tastes for an elementary school kid.

I left the horse mackerel to Nakazono and Ishigami, who said they had made dried fish before. Meanwhile, I cleaned the sea bass and black sea bream, preparing some as sashimi and cutting the rest into portions for simmering.

We distributed some of the sea bass and black sea bream to our neighbors, including Yoshino. Since the refrigerators weren’t working and we had no way to preserve the fish, we couldn’t keep any leftovers for long.

We could have salted or dried them, but sea bass and black sea bream would probably taste better eaten fresh.

After enjoying the delicious sashimi and simmered fish, I was drinking tea when Muto appeared.

“Got a minute? There’s something I’d like to discuss.”

I went outside and began talking with Muto.

“What I wanted to discuss is our drinking water.”

“Isn’t drinking water already taken care of? We can just fetch it from Dragon’s Whiskers Spring, can’t we?”

Muto shook his head.

“For people like you and me who’ve gotten stronger, it’s not much trouble. But it’s tough on ordinary folks. So Sakuma suggested we lay a water pipeline from Dragon’s Whiskers Spring.”

That certainly sounded convenient. However, I suspected the construction work would be quite demanding. What kind of pipeline did they have in mind?

“What sort of pipeline are you thinking of building?”

“We’re thinking of putting up support posts and fixing PVC pipes on top of them, connecting the pipes as we go.”

“Do you have pipes like that?”

“That’s the problem. The pipes are right in the middle of the Beastman Zone.”

“I understand. You want me to go into the Beastman Zone with you, right?”

“I’m counting on you. By the way, have you eaten your fish yet?”

“Yeah. It was absolutely delicious.”

As we chatted for a while, I remembered that I had wanted to ask him about Heartstone Processing Technique. When I did, he told me he didn’t have it.

“I don’t have enough Skill Points to waste on some mysterious skill like that.”

I explained Heartstone Processing Technique to him.

“What!? So if I’d had Heartstone Processing Technique, I could’ve made fishing lines and hooks myself?”

“Pretty much. Raising its Skill Level is difficult, but it’s the most useful skill I’ve found.”

Apparently, Muto had been spending Skill Points to raise his Skill Levels. Unlike me, he hadn’t had the luxury of gradually improving his skills through practice. Or rather, he hadn’t been in an environment where that was possible.

After all, he had needed to raise his Skill Levels as quickly as possible so he could search for food in dangerous areas crawling with Aberrant Beasts.

“What are you planning to do from now on?”

I asked because I knew he couldn’t keep collecting food indefinitely. Muto grimaced.

“I figure my only options are to start farming or go back to fishing.”

Apparently, Muto and his companions had been searching the houses in the Goblin Zone one by one and bringing back whatever food they could find. Once they had searched every house, they wouldn’t be able to continue working as Explorers.

“That sounds like a good idea.”

“What about you, Kojiro?”

“I’ll keep working as an Explorer for a while. As long as I can get Heartstones, I can make all sorts of things.”

“I see. Heartstones, huh? Maybe the god who turned the world into this gave us Heartstones in exchange for taking away our civilization.”

Hearing that, I thought it was an interesting idea. But there was definitely some entity responsible for changing the world. If that entity was a god, then it was a being far beyond my understanding.

The next day, Elena, Muto, his three companions, and I headed into the Beastman Zone. Our objective was to reach the warehouse where the pipes were stored. Along the way, I asked Muto and the others about the Goblin Zone and the Beastman Zone. Apparently, the agricultural cooperative building in the Goblin Zone was indeed considered a dangerous place.

“Isn’t there somewhere like the agricultural cooperative building in the Beastman Zone?”

“Yaso North High School. That place is bad news. Apparently, there’s a higher-ranking species of Orc there.”

I imagined an Orc as enormous as a Minotaur. If something like that came charging at me with a gigantic butcher’s knife, I would probably turn and run on instinct.

In the Goblin Zone, we fought mostly Goblins, with the occasional Bad Rat mixed in, collecting their Heartstones as we went. To my surprise, Elena’s archery had improved tremendously. Although only a short time had passed, she must have been practicing exceptionally hard.

Once we entered the Beastman Zone, we began encountering Orcs. Elena’s first arrow struck an Orc squarely in the chest. However, its thick muscles prevented the arrow from reaching its internal organs.

The Orc roughly yanked the arrow out of its chest and threw it onto the ground. Its eyes turned red with fury as it glared at Elena.

The Orc charged straight toward Elena. I sprang forward with my butcher’s knife and intercepted it in front of her. The Orc unleashed a slash aimed directly at my face.

I blocked the strike with my own butcher’s knife. The Orc possessed tremendous strength, but my enhanced body withstood the blow without difficulty.

The Orc pulled its butcher’s knife back before sweeping it horizontally. I lowered my body to dodge the slash, spun around, and sliced through both of the Orc’s legs. The massive creature staggered. My butcher’s knife then slid through its neck. Its large-nosed head dropped to the ground with a dull thud.

Muto and the others had been watching from behind, but they hadn’t been able to do anything. The moment the close-quarters battle began, they had been overwhelmed by its sheer intensity.

“Kojiro, is your Swordsmanship or Saber Technique Skill Level really high? Don’t tell me you’re already at Skill Level 7 or 8?”

“No way. My highest-level skill is Heartstone Processing Technique, and even that has only just reached the Advanced Practitioner level.”

“Then that’s about the same as our combat skills. So what’s different?”

Elena answered Muto’s question.

“Maybe it’s because his Individual Level is different. And perhaps he has more combat experience, too.”

“That’s probably part of it, but Kojiro raised his Skill Levels without spending Skill Points, right? That might have something to do with it.”

Muto and the others began talking about raising their Skill Levels through steady practice from now on.